INDIANAPOLIS – There was one situation that could make a huge splash in terms of what we would see in Indy Car silly season. If this occurrence happened, a shock wave would go off which would spark a lot of dominoes being ready to fall. If the situation didn’t happen though, then we’d see a very quiet silly season instead.

On Friday, that situation happened.

McLaren announced that they will return to the NTT IndyCar Series not just for the Indy 500 in 2020 but on a full season rather. Not only will they come back to IndyCar, they’ll have a two car effort too. But, where the dominoes start to fall is, they have formed an alliance with Arrow Schmidt Peterson Motorsports. Here’s why that move sparked fuel to this fire.

SPM had another year remaining in their contract with Honda. SPM has been with Honda since 2011. One of their two current drivers in James Hinchcliffe has another year remaining on his contract too. His funding to the team comes from Honda of Canada.

But, due to McLaren not being able to race with Honda power anymore, they needed to drive Chevrolet’s. So, in order for this partnership to work, SPM had to get out of their contract a year early and switch to Chevy power. In wake of that, Hinchcliffe had to make a difficult decision to drop Honda and remain with SPM/McLaren and will be one of their two drivers. But, who will his new teammate be? There are a lot of drivers who will start to lineup at SPM’s door now. They’re joined with an F1 team with a lot of money and resources. Maybe a future F1 seat? Maybe more money?

See where this all starts to turn?

We know SPM and McLaren were courting Colton Herta. But, several people have said within the paddock that they had believed that Herta was staying with Andretti and either coming back to Harding Steinbrenner or Andretti would expand to a fifth car with Herta in it. After all, Andretti holds Herta’s option.

If that doesn’t happen and Herta gets away, then McLaren/SPM would certainly be interested in Herta. So would Rahal/Letterman/Lanigan Racing who had Herta drive for them in the 24 Hours of Daytona. The top three options for Herta is Andretti/HSR, McLaren and RLL.

RLL has also said that they’re close to being able to fund a third car too to join both Graham Rahal and Takuma Sato who are coming back for 2020. Herta makes sense but so does an alliance with Michael Shank Racing. While joining forces with Andretti since they share AutoNation is the top choice, would Andretti want to keep the alliance with Harding going as well as have a second with Shank? Doubtful.

RLL and their Ohio ties make the most sense which allows them the three cars that they want. Plus, RLL is Honda based and Shank has to remain with Honda due to them having a sports car alliance with Acura. Since SPM went to Chevy, they are looking elsewhere.

Then, if Herta does leave Harding/Andretti, who goes there? Shank and their money could make a lot of sense but they may not have many other options other than taking on the Indy Lights champion of Rinus VeeKay or Oliver Askew.

Then you have Dale Coyne Racing. We know Sebastien Bourdais is back with them but what does Santino Ferrucci do? He has a deal in place but he has the option – not the team. If a ride at Andretti or RLL comes available, why not? I sense if Andretti adds a fifth car though, only Herta or Conor Daly would get it. His best option is to stay with DCR or go to RLL.

Ed Carpenter Racing may have two seats, one of which being the full time gig. They also may retain Spencer Pigot for a third season too in the FT seat. But, the road/street course ride share with Ed Carpenter may be open which could go to VeeKay or others. Also, VeeKay may keep his money with Juncos and bring them back on a limited basis too.

Then you have the open seat at McLaren that will be coveted. Pato O’Ward is drawing a ton of attention from them. But, does Red Bull let Pierre Gasly walk at the end of the season and bring O’Ward to an F1 seat to keep him? He will be highly targeted too. Felipe Nasr, Nicholas Latifi and others will be in the mix.

Silly Season just got wild and that’s all because of this move announced on Friday morning.